keeling



Feb. 5,y 1963 K. B. KEELING, sR Re- 25,326

` REMOVABLE DOOR STRUCTURE Original Filed Nov. 21, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet. 2

INVENTOR.

KERMIT B. KEELIN6,5R.

HIS ATTORNEY United States Patent Oilice Re. 25,326 Reissued Feb. 5, 1963 25,326 REMOVABLE DOOR STRUCTURE Kermit B. Keeling, Sr., Louisville, Ky., assiguor to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York Original No. 3,006,335, dated Oct. 31, 1961, Ser. No.

775,458, Nov. 21, 1958. Application for reissue Feb.

14, 1962, Ser. No. 173,864

7 Claims. (Cl. 126-191) Matter enclosed in heavy brackets appears in the original patent but forms no part of this reissue specification; matter printed in italics indicates the additions made by reissue.

This invention relates to removable door structures and has as its general object the provision of an improved door hinge mounting arrangement whereby an oven door, for example, mayy be mounted for pivotal movement between open and closed positions and also easily released and removed from the oven body so as to provide easy access to the interior of the oven for cleaning and other purposes.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the following description proceeds, and the features of novelty which characterize the invention will be pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this specification.

Briefly stated, in accordance with one aspect of this invention there is provided an oven door hinge structure including supporting members secured to the door and arranged to engage pivotally mounted hinge members secured to the oven body, and manually movable stop elements mounted on the hinge members for movement between one position in engagement with stop formations secured to the oven body when the hinge members are in open position and a second position out of engagement with the stop formations and preferably in engagement with portions of the door. Thus the door may be removed from the oven body only in its open position, and in this position the hinge members are locked so that they will remain ready to receive the door when it is replaced.

For a better understanding of this invention, reference may be made to the following description and the following drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary view, in elevation, of a cooking range embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view, with some of the parts broken away, of the door hinge structure utilized in the range shown in FIG. l.

FIG. 3 is similar to FIG. 2 but shows the parts as they appear when the oven door is in its fully open position.

FIG. 4 is a crossesectional view taken along the line 4-4 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary view similar to FIG. 4, in which the door is shown removed from its hinge structure.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6 6 in FIG. 4.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along the line 7-7 in FIG. 5.

Referring to the drawing, reference numeral 1 designates a range body including an oven liner 1a enclosing an oven 2 having a front opening, an oven door 3 provided with a handle 4 adapted to close the front opening of oven 2, hinge structure shown in detail in FIGS. 2-7 including a hinge lever 5 secured to door 3 by means hereinafter described in detail, and a spring 6 connected to range body 1 and to one end of hinge lever 5 by means of a cable 7 passing under a pulley 8 so as to apply a force to door 3 biasing it toward its closed position.

As shown in FIGS. 2-4, door 3 is secured to range body 1 along its lower edge, preferably by a pair of hinge mechanisms adapted to provide movement between a closed position, a partially open position, and a fully open position. Door 3, which includes an outer panel 3a and an inner panel 3b having a raised central portion 3c to provide greater thickness for insulating purposes, is provided adjacent each side edge thereof with a projecting door supporting member 11 rigidly secured thereto by any suitable means, and arranged to engage and be supported in a box-like hinge member 12 which is pivotally secured to a hinge member 13 by means of a hinge pin 14, hinge member 13 being xedlv secured to oven body 1 by screws or other suitable means. Hinge lever 5 is pivotally mounted at one end thereof on hinge member 12 by means of a pivot pin 15, so that when door 3 is mounted on the open body as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, spring 6 applies a force to the door tending to return it from the open position shown in FIG. 3 to the closed position shown in FIG. 2. The lower edge of hinge lever 5 rides on a roller 16 mounted on hinge member 13, it being observed that this edge is smoothly curved with the exception of a protuberance 17 intermediate the ends thereof and a stop portion 18 on the free end thereof, the latter being arranged to engage roller 16 so as to support door 3 in the fully open position. Protuberance 17 is positioned so as to hold door 3 by means of engagement with roller 16 in a partially open position useful in broiling operations. However, it will be understood that this feature is not a necessary part of the present invention.

In order to provide convenient access to the interior of the oven for cleaning and other purposes, it has been found to be desirable to provide means for removing door 3 from oven body 1 and thus projecting support member 11 on the door and hinge member 12 which is pivotally mounted on the oven body are arranged so that they may be separated from each other. It is apparent that door 3 cannot be conveniently removed from the oven body when in its closed position; furthermore, built-in ovens of the type arranged to be mounted in the wall of a kitchen or the like which have become popular in recent years are generally mounted at waist height, and the doors of such ovens can be conveniently removed by the housewife only when it is in its fully open or horizontal position. It will also be understood that a spring force of substantial magnitude is acting on hinge member 12 when it is in the fully open position and that it would be returned to its closed position at great speed if the door were simply pulled from the oven body in any fully open or partially open position. Also, when door 3 is held in any partially open position the frictional forces between projecting support member 11 and hinge member 12 produced by the closing force of spring 6 make removal of the door difficult if not practically impossible.

In accordance with the present invention, I provide simple and inexpensive means for locking hinge member 12 in its fully open position so that it remains in its open position whenever it is desired to remove the door for cleaning or other purposes. As best shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, a sliding stop element comprising a locking pin 19 and a handle portion 20 is mounted on hinge member 12 and arranged to cooperate with a stop formation 21 (see FIG. 3) Xedly secured to oven body 1. Stop formation 21 may conveniently be formed on one edge of hinge member 13 adjacent the opening therein which carries hinge pin 14. As seen in FIG. 4, locking pin 19 is movable from a position in which its left end is wholly within hinge member 12 and thus out of engagement with stop formation 21 and another position extending to the left in which it underlies stop formation 21 and thus prevents movement of hinge member 12 to its closed position. Handle portion 20 extends through an elongated opening 22 in the wall of box-like member hinge member 12 which is uppermost when the door is in its open position so that it may be manually actuated between its locked and unlocked positions when the door 3 is fully open. Preferably, elongated opening 22 includes a protuberance 23` positioned to provide a positioning recess for handle portion 20 at each end of the opening and the locking pin 19 is provided with spring means such as a leaf spring24 arranged to bias handle 20` `against the marginal edge' of opening 22 of which protuberance 23 is apart. Thus handle 20 must be shifted so as to rotate locking pin 19` slightly to disengage .the handle from protuberance 23 whenever the locking pin is to be shifted from one position to the other.

While the frictional forces between support member 1'1l and hinge member 12 may be suicient to prevent inadvertent removal of door 3 from the oven body, it is desirable that a positive locking arrangement be provided, and as shown in FIG. 4 locking pin 19 is preferably arranged to serve this purpose as well as the purpose described above. Thus, locking pin 19t may be made sufficiently long sothat its right end (as viewed in FIG. 4) extends into engagement with an adjacent portion 25 of door. 3 when the left end yof the locking pin is out of engagement with stop formation 21. Preferably portion 25 of the door includes an aperture 26 positioned in alignment with the path of movement of locking pin 19 so that the right end of the locking pin extends therethrough when inthe position shown in FIG. 4.

While it is conceivable that a single hinge mechanism might beutilized to support a door in some appli-y cations, an arrangement including a pair of hinge mech-anisms disposed on opposite sides of the door is usually desirable. In the latter arrangement it is` ofl course necessary to utilize the present invention in each hinge mechanism unless one of the hinge mechanisms is not spring biased to the closed position. In structures in which two hinge mechanisms areutilized, lockingpin 19 performs an additional function if an -attemptis made to remove the door when the locking pin of one of the hinge mechanisms remainsl in the normal operation` FIG. 4) position, or is entirely absent. Under these cir-- cumstanees a single locking pin remains in engagement with the door, and even though the door would tend toV dis-engage the other hinge mechanism (twisting in its town plane about the first hinge) it will befseen` (see FIG. 4) that the locking pin `of the first hinge interferes with suclivmovement ofthe door, and prevents movement sufficient. to allow the door to be completely dis-engaged while -therst hingemechanismk remains in its normal operation (unlocked.) position, in which position it wouldi be propelled by spring force against. the. oven body if the dor could be completely removed.

From the foregoing it will be evident that I havt provided a removable oven door hinge arrangement including a simpleand inexpensive buteifective locking means for supportingthe door hingemembers inthe open positionwhen removal of the door is desired, andyalso for positively securing the door to the hinge membersdur-V ing normal operation of the door.

While I, have shown and `described av particular embodiment of my invention, I do not desire the invention tobe limited to the particular construction disclosed, and- IV intend bythe appended claims to cover all' modifications within the true'spirit Iand scope of my invention.

What I claim is:

1..A removable door structure, -a body having a vertical wall with a door opening therein, a pivoted door adaptedtofclose said opening, a pair of first hinge means rigidly secured Ato-said body at the bottomedge of said opening, a. pair ofwsecond hinge means pivotally secured,` to said rst hinge means respectively, a pair of door supporting members secured to said door and' arranged to removably engage said pair of second hinge means respectively, said door being swingablebetween avertical closed position and a horizontal fully open position, and a manually movable stop element mounted on at least one of said second hinge means for alternate movement between` two 4 positions, a firstposition in locking engagement with the related first hinge means when the door and sai-d second hinge are in substantially the fully open position, and a second position out of locking engagement with the said related first hinge means but into locking engagement with the door, whereby said door is normally locked to the second hinge means and may only be -fully removed from said body when said door is in the substantially fully open position and said stop element is in its said iirst position in locking engagement with the related 4first hinge means.

2. A removable door structure, a body having a vertical wall with a door opening therein, a pivoted door adapted to close said opening, a pair of first hinge membersfrigidly secured lto said body at the bottom edge of said opening, a pair of second hinge members pivotally secured to said rst hinge member respectively, a pair of door supporting members secured to said door and arranged to removably engage said pair of second hinge members for movement therewith, spring means for applying a force to at least one of said second hinge members to bias said door toward its closed position, and a manually movable stop element mounted on the second hinge member that is acted upon by the said spring means, said stop element having. alternate movement between two positions, a first position in locking engagemeut with the rel-ated first hinge member when the door and said second hinge member are in a substantially fully open position so as to lock said second hinge member in said open position against the bias of said spring means, and a second position out of locking engagement with the first hinge member but into locking engagement with the door so that the door may be pivoted closed, whereby said door may only be removed from said body when said door is in the substantially fully open position and said stop element is unlocked fromthe ldoor and in its said first position.

3. A removable door structure asrecited in claim 2 in which the said body is an oven body and said stop element comprises a locking pin mounted for movement along a path generally parallel to the pivotal axis of its related second hinge member, and a handle portion projecting from said locking pin so as to extend upwardly when the door and said seco-nd hinge member are in the Substantially fully open position.

4. A removable door structure for an oven body as recited in claim 3 in which said second hinge member that is acted upon by the said spring means includes ain a wall thereof which is uppermost when in said open. position, `and said handle portion entends through said.

opening.

5. A removable door structure for an oven-body as recited in, claim 4 in which a marginal portion of the wall dening one side of said opening for the handle of the stop element includes a protuberance positioned so as to provide a positioning recess for said handle portion at each end of said opening, and spring means biasing said handle portion of said stop element against said marginal portion of said opening.

6. A removable door structure comprising a body having a.. vertical wall with a. door opening therein, a pivoted door adapted to close said opening, a rst pair of hinge members rigidly secured to said body at a bottom edge of said opening, a second pczz'r of hinge members pvomlly secured to said rst pair of hinge members and adapted to removably support said door for movement between a vertical closed position and a horizontal fully open posilion, means for applying a force to at least one of said second pair of hinge members biasing .mid door towards its closed position, door supporting members secured to said door and arranged to removably engage said second,-

of said second pair ofY hinge members, a stop formation,

fxedly mounted with. respect to the body, the stop element having alternate movement between a first position in engagement with the said stop formation when the door is in its fully open position so as to lock its supporting hinge member in said open position against the bias of said force applying means and a second position out of engagement with said stop formation so that the door may be closed, whereby said second hinge member may be locked in said open position to permit removal of said door from said oven body, said stop element comprising a locking pin mounted for movement along a path generally parallel to the pivotal axis of said hinge members, and a handle portion projecting from said pin so as to extend upwardly when said door is in its fully open position, at least one of said second hinge members including a hollow box-like member having an elongated opening in the wall thereof which is uppermost when the door is in said open position, and said handle portion extends through said open ing for ease of manipulation.

References Cited in the le of this patent or the original patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,979,210 Rogers Oct. 30, 1934 2,594,533 Baker Apr. 29, 1952 2,721,547 Polluck Oct. 25, 1955 2,873,737 Sherman Feb. 17, 1959 2,917,040 Aten Dec. 1'5, 1959 2,934,059 Baker Aug. 26, 1960 

